Payments to SWIFT have been suspended due to service disruption after receiving a Binance's warning

Payments to SWIFT have been suspended: The SWIFT payment network has made an extraordinary decision that will have far-reaching implications for cryptocurrencies. Asia Markets may reveal that SWIFT will no longer process fiat currency transfers from bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges, valued at less than USD 100,000, effective February 1, 2023.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange blamed the new decision on an undisclosed banking partner. The bank was said to be barring access for all of its "crypto exchange clients." As of the time of publication, no new cryptocurrency exchange had announced a comparable restriction.

"The banking partner that manages your account has indicated that they are no longer able to process SWIFT fiat (USD) transactions for individuals under 100,000 USD as of February 1, 2023. This is the case for all of their crypto exchange clients," Binance says.

The involved financial partner is Signature Bank, according to a Bloomberg report from January 21. According to Bloomberg, the bank set the $100,000 minimum transaction threshold in an effort to lessen its exposure to the market for digital assets. Although Binance did not choose to interrupt the payment system, transfers have been halted recently.

On November 17, Binance temporarily suspended USDT and USDC deposits made in Solana.

Although SWIFT (acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the world's most critical financial network – facilitating billions of dollars in international settlements daily – it is a somewhat secretive cooperative based in Belgium.

SWIFT made headlines after the outbreak of war in Ukraine last year, when the United States and its allies cut Russia off the network.

Such was the importance of cutting Russia off from the world's most important financial network, the French finance minister called the decision a "financial nuclear option".

Recently, Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase decided to halt its operations in Japan due to volatile market conditions. All Coinbase Japan customers will have until February 16, 2023 to withdraw their fiat and crypto holdings, the company said in a blog post.

"Due to market conditions, our company has made the difficult decision to halt operations in Japan and to conduct a complete review of our business in the country. We want to assure you that we have segregated the Japanese Yen and crypto assets of our customers in custody in compliance with the regulations, and we are committed to ensuring that all our customers can withdraw their assets at their earliest convenience. Fiat deposit functionality will be removed on January 20th, 2023 JST," the cryptocurrency exchange said.

Several firms have suffered from waning investor appetite for crypto after the major exchange FTX blew up in September. Higher interest rates and worries of an economic downturn have also piled pressure on the crypto industry, as investors flee risky assets.

The crypto sector's woes have continued this year, marked by plunging deposits, layoffs, and multiple legal hurdles.

Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Huobi have all announced plans to lay off about 20% of their respective staff, while a source told Reuters earlier this month that Genesis, too, had cut jobs, equating to 30% of its workforce.